Brian T. Dale, a retired Baltimore public school educator, died Friday from lung disease at his Ridgely's Delight home. He was 65. The son of an aerospace engineer and homemaker, Brian Thomas Dale was born in St. Louis and moved with his family in 1960 to Cocoa Beach, Fla. After graduating in 1965 from Cocoa High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in social work in 1969 from Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. He enlisted in the Army...

The SAT — that anxiety-provoking test required for so many college applications — is being redesigned to focus more on classroom learning and less on brain teasers. The College Board announced Wednesday that its revised SAT will be ready in the spring of 2016. The new version will have two parts, "evidence-based reading and writing" and math, and will return to a highest possible score of 1600. An optional essay question will be graded separately. "I hope it takes some of the intense anxiety of this high-stakes exam away," said Barbara Gill, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions at the University of Maryland, College Park and a College Board trustee.

Esther "Penny" Love, a Baltimore public school guidance counselor for nearly 40 years who was an outspoken advocate for emotionally challenged and dyslexic students, died Monday of lung cancer at Sinai Hospital. She was 89. Esther Shulman, whose parents owned a dry-goods store in the 2900 block of O'Donnell St., was born and raised in Canton. She graduated from Patterson High School in 1941. The summer after graduating from high school, she took a job washing test tubes in the detection laboratory at Edgewood Arsenal, under the direction of Solomon "Sol" Love, and earned his ire when she dipped the wrong end of a pipette in bleach.

Donald E. McBrien, former director of pupil services for Howard County public schools who earlier held the same position in Baltimore County public schools, died Wednesday of congestive heart failure at St. Agnes Hospital. The longtime Ellicott City resident was 79. "Don was a good friend and perfect for that job because he had great empathy for people who needed guidance or help," said Robert Y. Dubel, who headed Baltimore County public schools for 16 years until retiring in 1992.

Tonight's Ceremonial First Pitch will be thrown by Perry Hall guidance counselor Jesse Wasmer, who will be accompanied by Perry Hall student Daniel Borowy. On Aug. 27, after Borowy was shot in the back by another student in the school cafeteria, Wasmer responded quickly and bravely to tackle the gunman, preventing further injury to anyone else.

Robert J. Hewes, 64, teacher, guidance counselor Robert J. Hewes, who worked for 30 years in Anne Arundel County schools as a high school history teacher, then a guidance counselor, died of pancreatic cancer Friday at his Pasadena home. He was 64. Born in Baltimore and raised in Linthicum Heights, Mr. Hewes was a 1955 Brooklyn Park High School graduate. He earned a bachelor's degree from what is now Towson University and a master's degree in counseling from the Johns Hopkins University.

Grayce E. Sadofsky, a retired school guidance counselor and former registered nurse, died Tuesday of pulmonary disease at her Cape St. John home, near Annapolis. She was 81. Miss Sadofsky was born in Baltimore, the daughter of German immigrant parents, and graduated in 1938 from Western High School. She was a graduate of the old South Baltimore General Hospital School of Nursing, then earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Maryland School of Nursing in the early 1940s. Miss Sadofsky taught practical nursing at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School (Mervo)

Anna Baginski, who served in the Navy as a nurse at the end of World War II and later worked as a school guidance counselor in Baltimore County for 20 years, died of complications from Alzheimer's disease Oct. 30 at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. She was 87. Anna Spock was born in Kulpmont, Pa., to parents who had emigrated from Ukraine. She attended public schools in the town and, upon graduating from high school, went to the Geisinger School of Nursing in Danville, Pa. She graduated in 1942 and taught at the school for a few years before joining the Navy Nurse Corps in early 1945.

Sidney Mossovitz, a Carroll Community College administrator and former Baltimore County public schools educator, died Wednesday night at the Maryland Shock Trauma Center after he and a friend were struck by a car in Pikesville. He would have been 56 yesterday.The Chambersburg, Pa., native moved his family to Maryland to become a teacher.He taught history and social studies at Baltimore County schools before becoming a guidance counselor at Old Court Junior High School.He became vice principal at Randallstown High School in 1977, and held the same position at Pikesville High from 1991 to 1994.

Hazel H. Parks, a retired guidance counselor who was active in her sorority, died Thursday of a hemorrhagic stroke at her West Baltimore home. She was 82. Born Hazel Harrell in Timmonsville, S.C., she moved to Baltimore as a child and graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1944. She earned a bachelor's degree in education at Morgan State University and had a master's degree at the University of Rhode Island. She taught at the old Public School No. 1 on Greene Street and Calverton Middle School, and was later assigned to public school headquarters.

Carole E. Todd, a retired city public school educator and guidance counselor, died Nov. 24 at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center of burns. She was 72. Ms. Todd, who had lived at Milford Manor Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Pikesville, suffered burns after she dropped a lit cigarette into her wheelchair, said Laura Johnson, a cousin-in-law who lives in Pelham, N.Y. The daughter of Henry C. Johnson and Cordelia Nelson Johnson, both...

Kenneth G. Yeager, a retired Catonsville educator and counselor who had been principal of Catonsville Evening High School and Catonsville Adult Center, died Sunday of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Columbia. The longtime Ellicott City resident was 78. "He was a special person that did 1,000 times more than anyone else for the good of the Catonsville kids, and I'm sure the same for anyone else he touched," said John Corbitt, a former student.

Brian T. Dale, a retired Baltimore public school educator, died Friday from lung disease at his Ridgely's Delight home. He was 65. The son of an aerospace engineer and homemaker, Brian Thomas Dale was born in St. Louis and moved with his family in 1960 to Cocoa Beach, Fla. After graduating in 1965 from Cocoa High School, he earned a bachelor's degree in social work in 1969 from Stetson University in DeLand, Fla. He enlisted in the Army...

Ruth M. Land, a retired Baltimore public schools guidance counselor, died April 26 of complications from dementia at Union Memorial Hospital. She was 93. The daughter of farmers, Ruth Margaret Williams was born and raised in Ocala, Fla. After graduating in 1935 from Howard Academy in Ocala, she attended Florida A&M University and earned a bachelor's degree in 1939 from West Virginia State University. In 1940, she entered Howard University to study for a master's degree in education, but withdrew on the eve of World War II to take a job as a residence hall director at what is now Hampton University.

Helen B. Wolfe, an outspoken advocate of women's rights who also had been a member of the faculty of McDaniel College for more than a decade, died March 5 from cancer at Carroll Hospice Center's Dove House in Westminster. She was 79. With a head of thick white hair, flashing porcelain-blue eyes and an outsized personality, Dr. Wolfe made an instant and lasting impression on those she met, friends said. "When she came to the college, she had already had a distinguished career and in that sense showed a lot of the younger women the variety of roles she had undertaken," said Joan Develin Coley, who retired as president of McDaniel College in 2010.

Brother Patrick Ellis, a member of the Christian Brothers who served as president of La Salle University and Catholic University of America, died Feb. 21 of leukemia at a Christian Brothers nursing home in Lincroft, N.J. The Baltimore native was 84. Born and raised Harry James Ellis Jr. in Baltimore, he was a graduate of Calvert Hall College High School. When he was 17, he worked in the library of The Baltimore Sun as a research clerk and won praise from H.L. Mencken, who was writing an obituary for the American novelist Theodore Dreiser in 1945.

Steve Leonard Morris, a high school guidance counselor, collapsed and died Friday of a heart attack at Howard County's Long Reach High School. The Ellicott City resident was 48. "He was the epitome of the solid guidance counselor and a very important part of our learning environment. There's not a person, either faculty or student, who did not like Steve," said Long Reach Principal Ed Evans. "He was a fatherly figure who always made you feel like you were the most important person around, that your well-being was more important than his own. He was a truly nice and loving man."

Nelda K. Biasi, a retired Baltimore public school physical education teacher and counselor, died Jan. 25 from heart failure at Heartlands Nursing Home in Severna Park. She was 96. The daughter of farmers, the former Nelda Kalar was born in Kerens, W.Va., and later moved with her family to a Carroll County farm. After graduating from Carroll County High School in 1934, she earned a nursing degree in 1938 from the University of Maryland School of Nursing. "She worked her way through Western Maryland College while working as a nurse at the college, where she earned her bachelor's degree in education in 1941," said a niece, Barbara K. Jett of Sherwood Forest.

Tonight's Ceremonial First Pitch will be thrown by Perry Hall guidance counselor Jesse Wasmer, who will be accompanied by Perry Hall student Daniel Borowy. On Aug. 27, after Borowy was shot in the back by another student in the school cafeteria, Wasmer responded quickly and bravely to tackle the gunman, preventing further injury to anyone else.